Photoshop Pop Art
1
SELECT YOUR IMAGE
Before we get going, you will first need to select an image.
Decide on the type of image you want to convert into pop art—
this can either be black and white or a color image, but for the
best results it helps if you choose one that has a strong contrast
between the foreground and the background as we will be cutting
around the image later on.
>> If you don’t have an image at hand or you simply want
to practice before trying it on one of your own photographs, a
great website to download license-free photography is Unsplash
(www.unsplash.com). We select an image by Ivana Cajina on
Unsplash to use for this example.
>> Once you’re happy with your image, open it up in Photoshop.
The first thing we do is rename our image and create a duplicate
layer and lock it in case we need to go back to the original. Then
we convert our main layer into a smart object so we can modify
and replace it if we need to, without having to reverse the effects
that we are going to add later on. To do this, you can right-click
on the layer and select ‘convert to smart object’.
>> Before we go any further, we can crop the image if necessary.
In the toolbar on the left-hand side, select the rectangular
marquee tool and draw around the part of the image that you
would like to keep. Then go to image and crop. To deselect it, use
the shortcut ‘CTRL + D’.
>> To finalize the image before adding some pop art magic,
make sure the image resolution is at 72 pixels per inch, you can
check this by heading over to the image, then check the image
size in the top bar. Select this and change it to 72 pixels per inch,
if it isn’t already.IN THE WORLD OF ART, there are many different styles, ranging from abstract to modernism,
and surrealism to cubism—and that’s not forgetting what was thought to be the first modern art
movement, impressionism. There have been many art styles since and each has contributed
toward the main framework of art as a whole. Styles and genres come and go, but some seem
to stick around for good reasons.
Rising to fame in the late-1950s, the pop art movement is a bright and bold form of art,
pioneered by artists such as Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol. Now considered one of the
most significant art movements of the 20th century, pop art inspired many different sub-art
forms and the influence of its bright, bold, and fun vintage style can still be seen across a variety
of different media. The great thing about pop art is that you can take multiple elements from
the genre and apply them to your own work or imagery. In this tutorial, we will be converting a
regular photograph into the style of pop art using Adobe Photoshop. –SAM LEWISYOU’LL NEED THIS
ADOBE PHOTOSHOP
CC 2020
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LET THE TRANSFORMATION BEGIN
Now we can begin adding the transformations.
The next thing we need to do is separate our
subject from the background. There are many tools for
this, including the pen, magic wand, or quick selection,
so use whichever you feel most comfortable with.
>> We use the quick selection tool in the left-hand side
tool panel and once we have drawn around the subject,
we go to the select tab at the top and click ‘select and
mask’ [Image A]. On older versions of Photoshop, this
will be called ‘refine edge’. In these settings, you can tidy
up the edge of your selection. We increased the radius
and made sure that the ‘smart radius’ was selected.
>> Keep drawing around until you are happy with your
selection. Then scroll to the bottom to change the output
selection to ‘layer mask’.3
CUT IT OUT
Your image has now been cut out appropriately, so
click on the new layer button while holding down
the CTRL key to open a new layer underneath your active
one. We will fill this color with white, but first, check that
your active colors in the left-hand toolbar are black and
white already. Make sure white is the background color
then on this new layer press ‘CTRL + delete’ to replace
the transparent background with white.
>> If your image is in color, then you will need to
desaturate it. You can do this by selecting your subject’s
thumbnail then going into the adjustment layer tab and
selecting ‘black & white’.BA© ADOBE60 MAXIMU MPC FEB 2022
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